The National Union of Road Transport of Romania (UNTRR) has called on Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Romanian Ambassador in Sofia to address the problem of Romanian lorries being blocked at the border with Bulgaria. They are unhappy that the waiting time for lorries transporting goods to Austria is up to 7 days, reports BTA. In their statement, the hauliers said that if urgent measures were not taken to resolve the situation, they would demand that Romania be decoupled from Bulgaria in the Schengen accession process. The hauliers are also unhappy "with the non-transparent functioning of a new virtual queue management system at the border crossing".

Bulgaria tightened border controls on trucks travelling to and from Austria at the beginning of 2024, in line with its commitment to Austria for increased border security as part of the Schengen accession process.

Greece's participation in the project to build a 1,500 km high-speed railway line from Budapest to Athens through North Macedonia is a historic victory for the Western Balkans, as Corridor 10 will become one of the most important European transport corridors, said Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Goran Vesic, as quoted by Politika daily. 

Vesic added that a high-speed train journey from Budapest to Athens would take 13 hours, while a journey from Belgrade to Thessaloniki would take about six hours, "and there would be no stops at borders," the Tanjug news agency reported.

A tender for the construction of the 230 km Belgrade-Nis line will be held by the end of 2024. The project is worth 2.7 billion euros. The EU subsidy amounts to 610 million euros. In parallel, a 70 km line will be built from Thessaloniki to Sehovo on the border with northern Macedonia. "We will work together to connect Thessaloniki and Skopje. We will then have 1512 km of high-speed railway from Budapest to Athens," Vesic stressed, adding that Belgrade and Skopje would apply to the EU for funding for the high-speed section between the two capitals.

For the first time in Turkey's history, the share of the elderly population has reached double digits, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute published by TRT Haber. By the end of 2023, the proportion of the population aged 65 and over has grown to 10.2%. A comparison of the data shows a steady trend of ageing in Turkish society: 

In 1939, the share of the elderly population in the total population was 3.9%. In 1950 it was 3.3 per cent, in 1970 4.4 per cent and in 2000 5.7 per cent. In 2010, the indicator reached 7.2 per cent and has continued to rise since then. In 2020 it will be 9.5 per cent of the adult population. However, this is a rather low percentage compared to EU demographics. In 2023, the population aged 65 and over will be 8.72 million, of which 3.88 million will be men and 4.84 million women.

Macedonian Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi has condemned a statement by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, reports BGNES. A few days ago, Vucic said that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti was interfering in the politics of North Macedonia. "Kurti wants to rule in North Macedonia as well. He wants to defeat Ali Ahmeti's Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) party and enter the government after the elections in May," Vucic said during his visit to the United States. "The Serbian president, together with a certain group from several parties, both inside Macedonia and abroad, is conducting a massive propaganda campaign," Xhaferi said during a visit to the town of Tetovo. "They act as if they are very concerned about the fate of Ali Ahmeti and the DUI. In fact, they are against the collective interests of Albanians in the country. But the people cannot be fooled as to what their concern is," the prime minister added.